Leisure (poem)

Leisure is a poem by Welsh poet William Henry Davies, appearing originally in his Songs Of Joy and Others, published in 1911 by A. C. Fifield and then in Davies' first anthology Collected Poems, also published by Fifield in 1916.

Structure

The poem is written as a set of seven rhyming couplets.

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

Importance

Davies is generally best known for the opening two lines of the poem. It has appeared in most of his own anthologies and in many general anthologies of poems, including:

• Book of a Thousand Poems, published by Peter Bedrick Books in 1983
• Anglo-Welsh Poetry, published by Poetry Wales Press in 1984
• Common Ground, published by Carcanet in 1989
• A Poem a Day, published by Steer Forth in 1996